Pages

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Vincent Van Gogh

Looking for books on Van Gogh? Click picture above for details.

To see where you can order these kid friendly books on Van Gogh, click on any of the pictures above.

If you missed last week's post, I highlighted a "Copy Cat" painting workshop where students spent four days copying the works of four famous artists. Students spent a total of around 3-4 total hours copying one of Vincent Van Gogh's famous sunflower paintings. These paintings were done on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas in acrylic paints with acrylic gel medium added for extra texture.

After sketching out the basic drawing with watered down, yellow acrylic paint, students blocked in colors with their first layer of paint and this was allowed to dry. During the layout stage, students focused on Van Gogh's composition and flower placement, positive/negative space and lines. We encouraged students to sketch and paint what they actually "see", not what they "think" they see.

Students were reminded to look at the picture before each brush stroke. In the second and third layers of paint, acrylic gel medium was added to the paint to help build texture and show brush work--in an effort to mimic oil paints. Besides the art principals mentioned above, this project was great for teaching value, mixing paints and developing painting techniques, especially brush work.

These students were between the ages of 7-12, and the majority of them have taken art classes for two or more years. I think for this age group, the hardest part was focusing on the same thing for such a long period of time. I really challenged them to work in sections and perfect the details. As you can see, for such a young group, they really took my encouragement to heart. I was amazed at their results!

Click on Image to order!

Start Art Journaling Today! Click the orange link below...

Get inspired to create!

Welcome to my studio! Like Henri Matisse once said, "Creativity takes courage," so I hope you will find some things here that will inspire you to start a project and discover your inner artist. Put on your paint apron and stay awhile! If you try my ideas, or lessons I post from other sites, please be nice and include a link back to here.

Exploring Mediums

Stamping

Mixed Media

Collage

Oil Pastels

Watercolor

Clay Creations

Chalk Pastels

Acrylic Painting

Picasso

Classes

You may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, display, or in any way exploit any of the art works in whole or in part published on this website without written permission from the artist.